Ottawa’s largest automotive group is about to get bigger. The company is closing in on a 16th dealership that will formally be announced next week. Ground-breaking on its first Subaru dealership has already begun, and is scheduled to open in the spring of 2024.
“Since COVID started, we bought out an Infiniti dealership and moved it into one location we already had, and we opened a new Volkswagen dealership next door to where the Subaru is going,” said Myers’ CEO Cyril Leeder in an interview with Canadian auto dealer.
“We’re pretty focused on the Ottawa market and expanding here. We’re always looking for opportunities in Ottawa, both open point and existing dealerships,” he added, noting that this will be only the third Subaru dealership in Canada’s capital city.
“We like their cars, we think they really suit the Ottawa winter,” said Leeder. “The manufacturer gets high praise from dealers. They are top-of-the dealer rankings every year.”
They are also a sister company to Toyota, he said, which they already have a relationship with. “We get along famously with the folks at Toyota, so good product, right brand for it. Subaru has made a commitment to only have 100 dealers in Canada and this is number 96. We’re getting in just under the wire.”
The Subaru dealership will be in Barrhaven, which is 17 kilometres southwest of the city’s downtown core. Myers currently has three dealerships in Barrhaven, but plans to move a Nissan dealership there — so it will be five in the end, once the Subaru dealership is built.
Barrhaven has a connection to brothers Harry and Rob Mews, the third-generation owners of the dealership group who grew up in the area. They bought 25 acres of land a few years ago, when it was just a farmer’s field, and developed it into an auto park.
“They knew the area well and had the vision to think that one day it will be a great spot for dealerships,” said Leeder.
There are six automotive centres on the land, including Toyota, Hyundai and Volkswagen dealerships that Myers owns, and a Carstar Collision Centre that the company owns. There are separate owners for Ford and Honda.
“The brothers are really community-driven, and we give back a lot to the community,” said Leeder. “They could probably be a bigger group if they expanded outside of Ottawa, but their plan was to keep it local and family-focused here.”
